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Brendan Kiely

Biography

Brendan Kiely

Brendan Kiely is the New York Times bestselling author of ALL AMERICAN BOYS (with Jason Reynolds), THE LAST TRUE LOVE STORY and THE GOSPEL OF WINTER. His work has been published in 10 languages, received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, the Walter Dean Myers Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, was twice awarded Best Fiction for Young Adults (2015, 2017) by the American Library Association, and was a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014. Originally from the Boston area, he now lives with his wife in New York City. TRADITION is his fourth novel.

Brendan Kiely

Books by Brendan Kiely

Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook Academy and its old-boy social codes behind. She wants freedom, but ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends are determined to keep her in place. Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches. When Jamie and Jules meet, they recognize in each other a similar instinct for survival. Ultimately, they are faced with a difficult question: Can they stand together against classmates --- and an institution --- who believe they can do no wrong?

Corrina's a musician, itching for any chance to escape, become the person she really wants to be. And Hendrix, he’s cool. Kind of a poet. Gpa is his only real family, but he’s fading fast from Alzheimer’s. Hendrix has made Gpa an impossible promise --- that he’ll get him back east to the hill where he first kissed his wife, before he forgets all about her. One hot July night, Hendrix and Corrina decide to risk everything. They steal a car, spring Gpa from his assisted living facility, stuff Old Humper the dog into the back seat and take off on a cross-country odyssey from LA to NY.

A bag of chips. That’s all 16-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?